Kraken and tokenization platform Backed have taken their xStocks product a step further. After launching on Solana, xStocks now lands on BNB Chain. This move lets non-U.S. users trade tokenized U.S. equities in BEP-20 format.
Popular tickers including AAPLx, TSLAx, SPYx, and NVDAx are part of the offering. It denotes a very fast-growing interest in on-chain markets. When the trend towards tokenization develops full steam, Kraken aims to become one key entry point.
Expansion makes hassle-free withdrawals and deposits through both BNB Chain and Solana possible. Kraken’s non-U.S. customers will now enjoy easier access to tokenized stocks across chains.
Kraken expands tokenized stock access
Unsupported manages the distribution of such assets. They encapsulate regular stocks in cryptocurrency tokens that serve as digital twins. Such BEP-20 tokens process rapidly and settle immediately. This allows for faster agility than regular markets. Once they are pulled to self-custody wallets, they can also be traded on-chain, 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Kraken introduced product xStocks in June. Over 60 tokenized stocks were available to customers in 185 countries. Around-the-clock trading, on workdays, takes place, and trading on weekends will be a reality shortly. Kraken will look to overcome all limitations inherited by legacy trading hours.
Others are also catching up. Bybit, Gate, and Bitget have all added xStocks to their product lines. Robinhood even entered the mix in the previous week, offering tokenized stocks to EU customers on Arbitrum. Coinbase also has a roadmap towards offering similar products in the United States.
BNB chain powers xstocks expansion
BNB Chain was a natural candidate for the launch of xStocks. It comes with low fees, high speed, and a global user base. With over $10 billion locked, the chain experiences deep liquidity. It’s therefore ideal for scaling tokenized assets beyond borders.
Kraken’s future for finance is multichain access. More than digital representations, tokenized assets, such as xStocks, are tokens that facilitate the utilization of smart contracts, atomic settlement, and deep incorporation of DeFi. This will, at some point in time, reimagine capital markets. So far, the on-chain volume of xStocks has exceeded $32 million.
But that figure doesn’t include action on centralized exchanges. Actual reach could easily grow much bigger once consumers begin to leverage those resources. Kraken and Backed are right now forging links between stocks and cryptocurrency, chain by chain.
